Buckeyes confident they can play with anybody

The Buckeyes were off last weekend. They caught up with family, homework, watched football, and Urban Meyer visited Fort Myers, Fla., to watch his daughter play volleyball. In other words, Ohio State didn’t have to do a thing to move up in the rankings.

To whom much is given, much is expected. That biblical message was delivered by Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer to his team.

The Buckeyes were off last weekend. They caught up with family, homework, watched football, and Meyer visited Fort Myers, Fla., to watch his daughter play volleyball. In other words, Ohio State didn’t have to do a thing to move up in the rankings.

Stanford did it for them by knocking off Oregon on Thursday night.

What Ohio State needs to do the rest of the season is win, and win impressively, and then hope either Florida State or Alabama loses.

“The message is you have to play great,” Meyer said. “I mean, you’re held to — to even be mentioned with those teams — be careful what you wish for. That means you have to practice and play at a certain level. That’s what I mentioned to our team. We practiced at a very, very high level today. ... We all expect to play at a very high level because you’re mentioned in the same breath with some very, very good teams.”

Meyer revealed that he voted the Buckeyes No. 2 in his coaches’ poll ballot. He put Alabama No. 1, Florida State third and couldn’t remember the order in which he had Baylor and Stanford.

His reason was he has ranked Ohio State No. 2 all season.

“We’re playing like one of the top teams in the country right now,” Meyer said.

The Buckeyes head to Champaign to play Illinois. It has lost 19 straight Big Ten games in a row.

Ohio State has its own streak with which to be concerned. It has won 21 games in a row since Meyer took over. A win against the Fighting Illini would tie the school record of 22 wins in a row from 1967-69.

It wasn’t as if the Buckeyes dismissed Illinois. Quite frankly, the media asked few questions about this week’s opponent.

Clearly, though, what Ohio State is aiming for is bigger than conference wins. In order to get there, they need to beat a team like Illinois by a large margin. The Buckeyes are a 32-point road favorite.

“We’re not ignorant,” offensive lineman Jack Mewhort said. “We know the different facts about Illinois, but they’re still a Big Ten football program.”

And right now, at least in the eyes of national analysts, that’s the problem. Ohio State is the only conference team that’s been among the top 15 most of the season. The Big Ten hasn’t won a national title since, well, since Ohio State did in 2002.

Page 2 of 2 - But looking past Illinois won’t be a problem.

“No issue whatsoever,” Meyer said. “This is a very invested team. I’m watching for that. I’m telling you, as of Monday, no issue. There will be a bomb go off if we start to see that because this is a very invested team. Invested teams don’t do that.”

While most of the Buckeye players took the diplomatic approach to how they stack up against Alabama or Florida State — they passed on the question, instead saying they would answer it if the game happens — wide receiver Evan Spencer spoke his mind, as most receivers do.

But Spencer is the son of a coach and a thoughtful player.

“I’m a little biased, but I think we’d wipe the field with them,” Spencer said. “That’s just my bias speaking.”

Assistant coach Kerry Coombs was text messaging cornerback Bradley Roby during the Alabama-LSU game. They were messaging about schemes and players.

Coombs was diplomatic.

“We’re football junkies,” Coombs said. “You watch those guys. You want to watch good teams play and see how their kids stack up against your kids. ... I’d like to think we could hold our own against anybody. We’re looking forward to playing anybody and everybody that shows up.”

The rest of the season, regardless of what the Buckeyes do on the field, they’re still going to need another gift from someone.